The National Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (N-HYPPADEC) has taken over the rehabilitation of Mana Water Works in Bida, Niger.

The managing director of the commission, Abubakar Sadiq-Yelwa, disclosed this when he led a team of professionals and the Niger State Ministry of Water Resources to the area on Tuesday.

He said the takeover was to ease access to portable water in Bida town and its local government area, adding that the project would cost more than N200 million for its resuscitation and expansion.

Mr Sadiq-Yelwa explained that Bida town had been grappling with an acute water shortage for drinking and domestic use for decades.

He added that the project, aside from ending water shortages, would also end water-borne diseases in the area.

Mr Sadiq-Yelwa said the people of Bida and its environs would now get pipe-borne water for drinking and domestic use.

He expressed satisfaction with the work done, attributing the job to the engineers drafted by the commission and the state water board, who provided technical support to the ongoing project at 60 per cent completion.

He explained that the commission’s area office in Bida would sustain the supervision and monitoring of the project.

Also, Mr Sadiq-Yelwa applauded President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s commitment to the N-HYPPADEC communities in the country.

The chairman and chief executive officer of Sa’ed Samira Investment, Shafi’yi Yabagi, said the project covered the upgrading of eleven KVA lines to 33 KVA lines, expansion, reticulation and provision of more booster stations, treatment plants, distribution pipelines, and reservoirs, among others.

The project engineer, Amidu Muhammad, hinted that the project was initially awarded by the state government in 2017 at N100 million but was abandoned until recent intervention by N-HYPPADEC.

He said that when completed, the project would be able to treat 10,000 cubic metres per hour, easing the suffering of about two million beneficiaries.

The assistant area manager of Mana Water Board in Bida, Muhammad Yahaya, described the situation before the N-HYPPADEC intervention as terrible.

He lamented that the entire power line was completely vandalised before the intervention.

He added that the waterworks, which could pump over 10,000 litres per hour, were not working to capacity due to a lack of power supply; hence, they completely went down for over 10 years. 

(NAN)